After Avatar
by TheyCallMeChicky
Summary: This is my collection of one-shots/thoughts on what happened after they beat Ozai and made Zuko Firelord. Each one ties into the next, until we reach Aang and the last one-shot. And my mystery bonus one-shot. You'll see...
1. Chapter 1: Ty Lee

Only three weeks after joining the Kyoshi Warriors, I decided to leave.

I had realized that it was worse than home. At home, it was like I didn't have my own name. With the Kyoshi Warriors, I was literally part of a matched set. No one on Kyoshi knew my name; I was just another Kyoshi Warrior.

So I left. I didn't go home, and I didn't go back to the circus. Well, I went to back to the Fire Nation Capital, but not back to my family. Mai pulled some strings with Zuko and got me a house close to the palace, big enough for me to teach acrobatics and chi-blocking, but small enough so I wasn't lonely when I didn't have any students.

And, believe it or not, I hadn't had a boyfriend since joining the Kyoshi Warriors. I totally understand if you think I'm lying, but, to be honest, I really hadn't had time. I'd been so busy with students and keeping track of money and helping out with the peace-making missions. I understood the Kyoshi Warriors, so that was where I was supposed to be helping with. But Kyoshi had always been neutral anyway, so I hadn't actually had to do anything. And my aura was getting pinker by the day here!

...

After all my students had left, I went down to the market to pick up some food. I was tired of cooking, and the market was calling me. When I got there, I saw why.

In the center of the market, two people in masks were doing acrobatic routines. When they were finished, the crowd applauded, and one called:

"Twenty silver pieces to whoever bests me! Who will take my challenge, and who will be the judge?"

"I'll take your challenge," I yelled. Hey, it was acrobatics. Nobody's quite as good as me at acrobatics.

"And I'll judge," said one of the Imperial Firebenders.

"What will you give me if I win?" asked my challenger.

"Twenty _gold_ pieces," I countered haughtily. "But if you win, I'm totally challenging some one else to the same price."

My challenger smiled, and I started a routine.

It was showier than what I usually performed for... Anyone, really, but there were twenty gold pieces on the line. Twenty silver pieces would buy me more than dinner, and it would also win me plenty of attention and new students.

When I was finished, my challenger nodded, and began a routine of their own.

It was sloppy and was missing important basics. Then, as they tried to do a backflip, they fell.

They landed on their stomach, luckily, not their face, but they still looked pretty hurt. All thoughts of silver went out of my mind as I ran forward to see if they were okay. The Imperial Firebender judge came over too, and removed the mask.

It was Azula.

"Zula!" I said, like I had when we were kids. "Why did you think you could beat me at my own game?"

"I didn't," she spat angrily. "Who are you, anyway?"

"Ty Lee... Zula, don't you remember me?"

"You betrayed me! Everyone did, in the end! _Everyone_!" she screeched.

I looked at the Firebender.

"I don't think they let her out on purpose," he said.

"Yeah... Someone run over to the mental hospital! Tell them Azula escaped!" I called to the crowd.

Several people starting running up towards the metal hospital, and I remembered the day Mai had saved Zuko, and then I saved Mai from getting fried by Azula.

Right on cue, one of Azula's guards at the mental hospital came running down.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Well, she was down here doing acrobatics while wearing a mask. She offered anyone who could beat her twenty silver pieces. I accepted her challenge, and did my routine. Then she started to a routine, and she fell. We took off her mask and she started going on about how I betrayed her, and everyone betrayed her in the end, and all that stuff. And then we sent for you," I explained.

"Okay... And here's my back-up. We'll be taking her back to her quarters now," said the guard.

I nodded and watched as the guards escorted Azula back up to the mental hospital.

How had my trip to the market gone so sour?


	2. Chapter 2: Azula

A/N: Wow, I don't think I write Ty Lee well at all, never thought I'd get that on something from her perspective. Now we move along to Azula, who will likely be followed by Mai or Katara. I'm saving the characters I think I have a better hold on until the end.

Azula

They said I was insane, but I knew better! There was a reason we had guards, I wasn't in a hospital! This was a prison, not a hospital where I could get better- I was as sane as Zuzu, and he knew it.

Oh, do they let you read my journals, Zuzu? I know my calling you Little Zuzu annoys you- since you've got those two little years on me, you think you can just lock me up since I had a very bad reaction to some stress. You lost sleep over your Firelord ceremony, didn't you? And yet they didn't lock you up every time you throw fire at nothing, when you yell at a servant that's done nothing, if you and Mai get into an argument, do they?

One of the Fire Sages that Zhao imprisoned is a few rooms down from here, Shyu, I think. He doesn't know why I'm here, and he's taught me a lot about the Sprit World- maybe enough that I know more than the Avatar- I bet you didn't know that there was no Bending in the Sprit World, Zuzu. Or that it's possible to be trapped and never return. That there's a face-stealing monster called Koh.

I like Shyu. He treats everyone well, and I think it was him that started me thinking that maybe we're all just "public enemies", or whatever you'd like to call us. We don't get treated badly, exactly, but we're only allowed out of our rooms for short periods of time, to go into a fenced in yard.

But I escaped. Ty Lee caught me, and I pretended to be crazy. I think she fell for it, her and everyone else. The guards who came to get me were among the meanest, among the five I fear. They scare everyone, even the criminals I doubt you know are here, Zuzu- did you wonder what prison the Rough Rhinos were sent to? They're in the roughest block, and we all know to stay away from them- a guard was killed over there recently, a prisoner snapped his neck.

Though our block does have what I think a mad house's schedule might be- we wake up, are marched to the dining hall, given food that either doesn't need cutting or has been cut for us, are marched back to our blocks for "down time", which means people come through to ask us to "draw something that makes us feel happy" or "talk about how we feel today", and they take notes. They're trying to figure out how sane we are, and some of the best-behaved prisoners are given medications to make them act funny- they want us to think we're really insane. After "down time", the benders among us get a chance to bend under fierce supervision, one each in small cells in a courtyard.

Bending is the day's highlight, I think. My bending is still better than yours, Zuzu, and they even let me fire off a little lightning sometimes. My bending is still as sharp as my mind, and I know how the next escape is going to go- Shyu is in as well.

The bending makes us hungry, luckily it's followed by lunch. We get marched back to our cells for real down-time, which is where we are now. We have until dinner to go either outside or wander our halls. I'm in Azulon Hall in the Mental Division, our hall is the "most exemplary", or something like that. They put dinner in our cells for when we get back, they take the plates when we're done and have to do which ever we didn't do in "morning down-time", which tends to be "feelings talk" for me.

Do you know, Zuzu? Do you know where I am right now? If you read these, and you know I plan to escape again, and that the Sages from Roku's Temple are here, then why don't you let us know? I know that the therapist- mine as well call her that, since obviously that's what she is- reads these, I bet you do too. I'll anticipate your message, Zuzu.

A/N: So, what do you guys think? Good, bad, ugly, love it, hate it?


	3. Chapter 3: Mai

DISCLAIMER: Just realized I forgot this on my first two chapters, so I'm willing to bet that you know I don't own Avatar. If I did, forget Suki, Sokka would be with Toph. For those of you who think Toph hates Sokka, I advise you re-watch the series.

A/N: May the grammar-freak rabbit watch over your writing.

Mai

_If only you knew, Azula, _I thought to myself. It was me, not Zuko, who read updates on Azula's condition; she'd apparently decided she wasn't insane in any way. She was crazy last time we all saw her, and I was pretty sure she hadn't been faking either. She was just… gone.

I wasn't living in the Palace, but I mine as well have been. The cottage- or smallest estate ever, whichever you prefer- was built into the walls of the Palace, and I had a side door into the Palace. I liked the cottage part of the cottage, but the grounds were a little unnecessary. Too many flowers, too overly-girly for my tastes. They belonged in Ty Lee's house, not mine.

Though the interior had been mine to deal with. It was full of dark colors, with only one painting, the one Sokka had made of everyone in _The Jasmine Dragon_. I'd never admit it, but I really loved it. Anyone who tells anyone I said that will feel the wrath I gave everyone at the Boiling Rock, except they'll feel the full force, rather than the partial force each person there felt.

Anyway, I loved my house, and everything in it. Minus the scrolls and scrolls and scrolls of updates on various things- from Azula's mental state to the opinions of people in the ex-colonies. Both weren't that great. Azula's mental state ranged from being off the deep end to convinced she was sane, and the people in the ex-colonies were quite loud in their hatred of the Fire Nation.

But besides those, life seemed to be edging out of its usual black and white- some color seemed to be edging its way in. Ty Lee and I both had more time on our hands, and we'd grown closer since she saved my life. Though what else could be expected?

There was a sharp knock at my door- clearly not Zuko or Ty Lee, from the sound of it. Ty Lee knocked loudly but the knocks were short, and Zuko didn't bother to knock.

"Who is it?" I called in a bored tone.

"Imperial Firebenders!" called back the voice behind the door. I opened it, and several members of the guard stood on the threshold.

"Yes?"

"We'd like to know if you've seen the Firelord recently," said the man who appeared to be the leader.

"This morning, any reason you're interested?"

"He appears to be missing, Mai. Did anything seem off about him?"

"_Missing_? As in, you actually searched for a note and know for a fact that he hasn't gone off to meet with the Avatar?" I asked critically- I was tired of those kind of things.

"Yes, Mai. He's definitely missing."

"And…? You need my help why?"

"Because you know him best. Follow us."

Another day, another pointless search. What else was new?

The Imperial Firebenders started off, and I planned to slip away as soon as I could- Zuko was likely somewhere in the Palace yet again. They'd search Palace City over and not find him, then issue a search over the Fire Nation. I'd look around the Palace, then find him in some obvious location- the kitchens, the audience chamber, the council room, or occasionally a closet. This happened almost every day, right on schedule.

Eventually, the guards got into a heated argument about where to check first, and I headed off- again, right on schedule. I headed back into the Palace, deciding to check the kitchens first- it was the most common place to find him when he was "missing".

I navigated the Palace confidently, very sure of my way to the kitchen. I knew I was getting closer when waves of heat washed over me from the ovens and other various heat sources a kitchen required.

"Seen Zuko?" I asked, popping my head in the door.

One of the cooks- scratch that, a dish boy- looked up.

"No, why?" he asked.

"Apparently, he's missing again. We all know what that means," I answered.

The dish boy grinned. "Have you tried the audience chamber yet?" he asked.

"No- kitchen first, at this time of day," I answered.

"Oh…. I see," he replied, though I could tell he didn't.

I left quickly, determined to find Zuko before the Imperial Idiots got back. My next stop would be the council room, formerly known as the war room, as it was closest to the kitchen, and I'd check the two closets on my way.

Zuko wasn't in any of those places. Or the audience chamber, or any of the other closets.

It appeared he truly was missing.

A/N: Thoughts? I hate trying to write Mai, she's so negative and depressed, and I'm… not.


End file.
